An update from Goldstein ballot counting
Another batch of votes counted for Goldstein has brought Tim Wilson’s lead down again to 302. There are just 951 envelopes left.
The independent Zoe Daniel, who is still holding on, needs the final envelopes to go two-to-one in her favour – but it looks like the last batch came close.
Key events
Josh Taylor
Telstra has trialled sending text messages via Starlink’s satellites direct to mobile phones in Australia.
Since April, the company has sent 55,000 text messages testing out the capability ahead of a commercial launch. A live trial in the past week has seen the telco send text messages successfully to mobiles outside its coverage areas in the NT, WA, Qld and NSW.
Telstra has also tested sending GPS coordinates and emojis via text.
The service for SMS messaging is expected to be launched in the coming months.
Last week, rival TPG announced it had sent a text message to a mobile in a limited coverage area in the Northern Tablelands of NSW using Lynk satellites with the Vodafone network.
The advances come ahead of the Albanese government’s plan for universal outdoor mobile coverage, which would use the satellite services for text messages and calls in areas with no mobile coverage.
Sarah Basford Canales
Refugee advocates call on Australia to lift ban on refugees who are still in Indonesia
Refugee advocacy groups are calling on the Albanese government to use talks with Indonesian president, Prabowo Subianto, this afternoon to improve the living conditions of refugees currently awaiting resettlement options in Indonesia.
In 2014, the Australian government announced it would no longer take asylum seekers and refugees registered with the UN’s Human Rights Commission in Indonesia after July 2014, which has left thousands stuck in limbo for years until a third country accepts them.
With the US’s Trump administration pausing its refugee intake program earlier this year, the Refugee Council is urging Australia to lift the ban and become a regional leader in refugee resettlement.
Anthony Albanese is joined in Jakarta today by home affairs minister, Tony Burke, and foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, for his first international visit since securing a second term.
Refugee Council ambassador, Sidiqa Faqihi, a Hazara woman from Afghanistan who was stuck in Indonesia for a decade before arriving in Melbourne in 2022, said life for asylum seekers in Indonesia was a “constant struggle for survival and a desperate fight to hold on to hope”.
She said:
It felt like existing without truly living. We are treated as invisible, without a national identity or the basic human rights that others. With limited settlement opportunities each year, many of us are left in a perpetual state of limbo, trapped in a cycle that can last for decades, often more than 20 years without a clear path to safety or a future.
Jana Favero, the deputy chief executive of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, said the situation was “diabolical” and Australia must end its ban as a “moral and urgent imperative”.
We can no longer continue to burden our regional neighbours with our punitive policies based on deterrence and cruelty.
Burke’s office declined to comment.
Unemployment rate remains at 4.1% for April after strong month for jobs
Patrick Commins
Australia’s unemployment rate stayed at 4.1% in April after the economy recorded a bumper month of jobs growth.
The number of employed people climbed by 89,000, including 59,500 full-time jobs and 29,500 part-time roles. Underemployment as a share of the total workforce – which measures those with jobs but who want to work more – inched up to 6%.
The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures come ahead of next week’s two-day meeting of the RBA’s monetary policy board, which is expected to lead to a rate cut on Tuesday. The consensus among economists had been for the key unemployment measure to hold steady in the month.
A resilient labour market through the surge in cost of living and climbing interest rates has been the backbone of Australia’s post-lockdown economy. After climbing off multi-decade lows of about 3.5% in 2022 and 2023, the jobless rate has stabilised at about 4% through last year and into this year.
Unemployment sits at least 1 percentage point lower than during the years leading into the pandemic, raising hopes that the economy can sustain this lower jobless rate without triggering higher inflation and higher interest rates.
PM details today’s talks with Indonesia
The prime minister has told reporters his delegation to Indonesia will be talking defence and economy:
We’re talking about further strengthening our defence ties and also how we put our economic partnership, how we can build on that with investment. I look forward to discussions that I’ll have with the president in a formal sense, one-on-one this morning.
Tony Bourke speaks to home affairs department’s relationship with Indonesia
The home affairs minister, Tony Bourke, joins the prime minister and foreign minister live in Jakarta:
The relationship across every part of Home Affairs with Indonesia is incredibly important. That goes across the home affairs and counter-terrorism areas, through to matters regarding people smuggling and other forms of trafficking. All the way through to cybersecurity as well.
Wong reiterates Indonesia’s importance to Australia during ‘this time of global uncertainty’
Foreign minister Penny Wong is also speaking live from Jakarta, reiterating the importance of Australia’s relationship with Indonesia “at a time of global uncertainty”:
Indonesia is just so important to Australia. It is so important to Australia bilaterally in terms of our relationship, our economic relationship, our strategic relationship. It’s so important to Australia in our region because Indonesia is the largest Asean country, whose leadership Asean looks to. And at a time of global uncertainty, what I would also say is that we recognise, the Albanese government, that our security and our stability comes from our region and from our relationships.
We see Indonesia as critical to navigating this time of global uncertainty. We know that economic resilience matters, it always matters and it matters even more so in a world which is more uncertain and more turbulent. You build your economic resilience with stronger regional relationships, the sorts of work that the prime minister is discussing, the economic relationship as well as the strategic relationship with Indonesia.
Anthony Albanese holds press conference in Indonesia after informal meeting with President Prabowo Subianto
Prime minister Anthony Albanese says he chatted elections and the state of the world with president of Indonesia Prabowo Subianto, who greeted Albanese informally upon arrival at his hotel last night.
Albanese is speaking live from Jakarta:
The relationship between Australia and Indonesia is so important. Important for our defence and security, important for our economic future, and important for the region.
I must say, I was very honoured last night that President Prabowo came to the hotel here and we sat down with our foreign ministers as well for just an informal chat prior to the one-on-one leaders’ meeting that we’ll hold this morning. It said something about the depth of the relationship and the extent of the friendship and warm relationship between our two nations, but also my warm relationship with the president that he came here [and] sat in the hotel room.
We had a really good chat about elections, about the state of the world.
An update from Goldstein ballot counting
Another batch of votes counted for Goldstein has brought Tim Wilson’s lead down again to 302. There are just 951 envelopes left.
The independent Zoe Daniel, who is still holding on, needs the final envelopes to go two-to-one in her favour – but it looks like the last batch came close.
Former Liberal MP arrested, accused of breaching bail
A former Liberal MP accused of sexually assaulting a teenager in police custody after being accused of breaching his bail conditions.
Rory Amon, 35, has pleaded not guilty to five charges of sexual intercourse with a person aged 10 to 14.
But Amon was arrested on Wednesday night after police alleged he breached his bail conditions. He will front the Downing Centre local court later on Thursday.
The former NSW MP was arrested at the Day Street police station, in Sydney’s CBD, about 10pm on Wednesday. Police declined to detail the nature of his alleged bail breach.
Amon had been on bail awaiting a trial set down for February 2026. He is accused of presenting as a 17-year-old after matching with a boy on a website in mid-2017.
Prosecutors allege the boy, then 13, said he was 15 and later agreed to meet in person.
Prosecutors further allege Amon insisted on meeting in a private place and led the 13-year-old to a bathroom in a car park where the sexual assaults occurred on two separate occasions.
At the time, Amon was a local councillor and later rose to win the safe Liberal seat of Pittwater.
Shortly after his arrest last year, Amon said in a statement that he denied all the charges. He resigned from state parliament and from the Liberal party.
– Australian Associated Press
Henry Belot
Bishop congratulates Ley on assuming party leadership
Former foreign minister Julie Bishop, who unsuccessfully ran for the Liberal leadership in 2018, has congratulated Sussan Ley on becoming leader of the Liberal party.
Bishop was the first woman to contest the leadership of the party in its 75-year history and was Australia’s first female foreign minister. She unsuccessfully ran against Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton for the leadership.
My warmest congratulations to Sussan Ley on her election as leader of the Liberal party. It is an honour that brings great responsibility and Sussan will bring her boundless energy and determination to meet the challenges ahead. I wish her every success.
More on independent Zoe Daniel holding on to hope in Goldstein.
Another batch of votes counted have brought Tim Wilson’s lead down to 368. There are just 1211 envelopes left to count – meaning they will have to go two-to-one in Daniel’s favour for her to win.
